Los Angeles City Councilwoman Peggy Stevenson Wednesday received a campaign boost from Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, who appeared at a press conference with Stevenson to charge that her foe had incorrectly used police statistics in a brochure saying that crime has gone up in her district.

Bus crimes are a serious problem in the Los Angeles area and they're greatly understated by the Southern California Rapid Transit District, two UCLA researchers report in a new study. A sample of 1,088 randomly selected households in West-Central Los Angeles found that crimes committed on buses, at bus stops and traveling to and from the bus stops were 20 to 30 times higher than RTD reported in 1983.